Key equity benchmarks hovered with modest gains in afternoon trade. At 13:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 120.30 points or 0.31% at 39,101.73. The Nifty 50 index was up 25.85 points or 0.22% at 11,750.60.
Overnight slide in crude oil prices supported the gains. In the global commodities markets, Brent for July 2019 settlement was down 31 cents at $70.44 a barrel. The contract fell $1.43 a barrel or 1.98% to settle at $70.75 a barrel during the previous trading session.
India imports majority of its crude requirements and a decline in crude eases concerns on fiscal deficit and inflation.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.01%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.05%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1010 shares rose and 1237 shares fell. A total of 170 shares were unchanged.
NTPC (up 2.25%), ICICI Bank (up 1.85%), Bharti Airtel (up 1.39%), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.27%) and Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.21%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
TCS (down 2.74%), HCL Technologies (down 2.19%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 1.88%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
Tata Motors rose 1.96% after the company declared sales volume data for April 2019 after market hours yesterday, 2 May 2019. Tata Motors Commercial and Passenger Vehicles Business sales in the domestic market fell 20% to 42,577 units witnessed in April 2019 over April 2018, as weak consumer sentiments continued. The company's sales from exports (CV and PV) in April 2019 was at 1,402 units, lower by 53% over last April.
Several factors like high stocks in Bangladesh because of the contraction in retails during the last quarter due of elections, security concerns in Sri Lanka and slump in Middle East have affected the overall industry volumes in these markets.
On the economic front, India's unemployment rate in April rose to 7.6%, the highest since October 2016, and up from 6.71% in March, according to data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) released late on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, India's economy slowed down slightly in the last fiscal due to declining growth in private consumption, slow increase in fixed investment and muted exports though it is still fastest growing major economy, said the Finance Ministry's monthly report. It further said there is slowdown of growth in agriculture and sustained growth in industry as well as some challenges.
Overseas, European shares were mixed Friday as investors digested fresh corporate earnings and looked ahead to payrolls data out in the U.S. Asian shares were mixed following losses in US shares overnight. Markets in Japan and China are closed for holidays.
In US, stocks ended lower on Thursday, marking a second straight loss for the S&P and Dow, as equity investors hopeful of further policy easing remain disappointed with the Federal Reserve's Wednesday meeting.
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